A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader in Uttar Pradesh has said that India is a country only for those following Hindu religion. The BJP MLA, Vikram Saini, said that since the name of the country is Hindustan, it suggests that it belongs to Hindus.

He further said that “today everyone gets benefits irrespective of their caste”. In an apparent attack on the previous governments, he said that earlier those with the longest beards got the fattest cheques.

The statement was made by the BJP leader at a public gathering in Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh on Monday.

He further said that “some incompetent people once stopped Muslims from leaving the country, because of which we are in trouble today”. “Had they left India, all the land would have belonged to us,” Saini added.

Responding to a question on recent terror attack on CRPF camp in Jammu and Kashmir, BJP MP Nepal Singh said that there is no country where armymen don’t die.

“They will die in Army everyday. Tell me one country where army personnel do not die,” he said.

Apparently upset over the raising of the issue of armymen being killed in terror attacks, Singh said, “Even when a scuffle breaks out in a village, someone or the other gets injured. Tell me a medicine that can save lives.”

In a pre-dawn strike on Sunday, at least five CRPF men were killed when heavily armed terrorists stormed the camp of the paramilitary force at Lethpora. The attack was claimed by Pakistan-based Jaish-e- Mohammed.